Get to Know the Types of Coffee Roasts

The flavor, aroma, and color of the coffee will vary depending on the type of roasting. 

Did you know there are several factors that can determine the taste and aroma of your favorite coffee? One of the most important is roasting, an art that experts may take years to perfect, but once mastered, it provides several specific flavors and qualities to your favorite drink. These characteristics will depend on the type of coffee roast and the technique of the master roaster. But how complicated can it be to roast a coffee and select a color? In fact, it’s more complicated than it seems, because each type of coffee has a specific taste, aroma, acidity, and bitterness that is given at this stage of coffee production.

Knowing the types of coffee roasts

The difference between a good roast and a ruined product is time. During this process, every minute and second counts. It’s always necessary to consider that, depending on the method used by a roaster, the changes in color and stages may take more or less time.

Once you understand these factors that influence the quality of roasting, you should also keep in mind that the coffee industry doesn’t have standardized names and phase descriptions. Each company can have its own classification, although a simple measure that is often used, is one that defines four states: light roast, medium roast, medium-dark roast, and dark roast. Within these categories, small subdivisions with small variations in color and taste can also be found.

Light Roast

This type of roasting is characterized by colors ranging from pale orange to light brown. In general, the beans that are still in this stage have a grainy flavor and retain a higher percentage of acidity, caffeine and origin flavors. In the darker roasts of this stage, the “first crack” is usually heard. From this moment on, the coffee is more suitable for consumption.

Usually, the light roast category includes light City, Half City, and Cinnamon Roasts, in which the bean is roasted until before the first crack. Also in the category is the so-called New England Roast, in which the bean is roasted until the first crack.

Medium Roast

The colors in this category are mostly light and medium brown. As with light roast, the coffee beans don’t have any oil on the surface; however, their taste is more roasted and less grainy, and they have less acidity. Also, their caffeine level has decreased slightly, flavors are more balanced and have more body.

As part of this stage, some experts usually mention the City and Breakfast Roast, and the American Roast, a very common roast throughout the United States.

Medium Dark Roast

This type of roasting has a darker color and provides a bitterer flavor to the bean. At this stage, oils begin to appear on the surface of the seeds. The coffee that this type of roasting provides has more body than it’s given by the light and medium roast.

In this category, there are the so-called Full City and Vienna Roasts, characterized for being roasted until hearing the second crack.

Dark Roast

In this category, the color of the roast is dark brown and almost black. On the surface of the coffee bean, you can see the oils. The bitter and smoky taste predominates over the original flavors, and the levels of caffeine and acidity are lower than those of the other roasts.

This state includes the so-called High, Continental, French, New Orleans, European and Espresso Roasts. A wide variety of names and roasts, don’t you think?

With this introduction to the world of roasting, you’ll be able to identify more clearly which product might be the best for you or your customers. Remember that if you want to open a business in which main product is coffee, you must know how to identify the needs and tastes of your clients in order to offer them the right type of coffee roast.

If you want to know the variety of products that the different roasts can produce, look for us on our social networks as That Coffee Roasters and discover much more about your favorite coffee!

If you want to get into the coffee business, you must know the best roast!

That Coffee Roasters

Phone Number: (305) 821-8811

2697 W. 76 Street, Hialeah, Florida 33016

Facebook: That Coffee Roasters

Instagram: thatcoffeeroasters

4 Signs To Identify A Good Quality Roast

Learn what makes coffee's roasts so good.

In the eternal quest for seeking the best of caffeine, coffee lovers know how important it is to find a good roaster. Many of them pick their favorite local roaster, and others go to the extent of learning how to roast at home to experiment this process on their own. Whichever the case is, the truth is that most of your daily cup of coffee's magic resides in coffee roasting. If done well, it not only brings out the flavors hidden behind every bean, but it also enhances its characteristics to bring only the very best of coffee’s origins and harvest into your brew.

To begin with, the process is highly complex. It can take years of experience, skills, and a strong attention to detail to understand the many subtleties and factors that can affect coffee beans when they’re being roasted. Therefore, it’s only logical that making good quality roasts is not as simple as it would seem to be. Here are 4 signs to help you identify what makes a good roast, so you can enjoy an experience similar to going through the gates of heaven! (There’s a tiny chance we’re exaggerating with that one, but please indulge us).

Rate of Rise

Most people don’t know that maths are heavily involved in the coffee roasting process. The rate of rise (RoR) is one of the most important elements in any good quality roast. It refers to the coffee bean temperature's progression per unit time.

A well-made roast should have a steadily decreasing RoR. If you feel an unpleasant baked flavor in your roast, this part probably wasn’t done correctly, and temperature ended up stalling. If on the other hand, the roast had an increasing RoR, the final brew could probably lack sweetness.

Airflow

Although sometimes overlooked, a factor known as airflow can affect your roast more than you could think. Regulating airflow can give roasters an opportunity to control heat transfer. In an ideal scenario, airflow should be increased as roast progressed to dispense off smoke produced in the process' latest part. If roasters fail to dominate airflow, your brew could end up with flat, dull, and dry flavors.

Temperature

As expected, the temperature is one of the most important factors involved in coffee roasting. Depending on beans' characteristics, the temperature to which roast is done will change and be adjusted. However, some general conceptions stand.

For example, a roaster should be preheated before pouring any beans in. Then, the person supervising the roasting should have a way of changing the input temperature throughout the process, as well as having a method to cool beans quickly once the roasting is done. It’s especially important to pay attention to temperature during the drying phase and the first crack stage. If not, coffee beans could end up tasting dull.

Development

Every roasting process has several stages in which beans suffer transformations that will lead to the final product. Having said that, a large amount of energy upfront is ideal for coffee roasting. There are basically three stages: underdeveloped, developed, and overdeveloped. A good roast should never be under or overdeveloped. Adjustments in temperature should be made on time to guarantee that beans will be roasted to the right stage.

Also, here’s a little trick: if you want to know whether your coffee beans were well developed, you can place a tablespoonful of ground coffee on top of a glass of ice water. If the coffee leaches into the ice water within a few minutes, it means it was either under or over-roasted. If it doesn’t, not even after a half hour, then you’ve got yourself a good quality roast!

As you can see, roasting coffee is a practice way more complex than it seems. At That Coffee Roasters, we need to pay extreme attention to detail and have a full grip on the whole process to guarantee our customers an excellent product. Try for yourself some of our best roasts and start shopping today at our online store!

Get ready to pick!

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That Coffee Roasters

Phone Number: (305) 821-8811

2697 W. 76 Street, Hialeah, Florida 33016

Facebook: That Coffee Roasters

Instagram: thatcoffeeroasters